A. Writing Task 1: Pie – Chart

In this lesson we are going to have a look at a pie -chart. In the following pdf attachment you can see how a pie-chart task will look like. In this example, I chose to use two pie – charts in order to show you a more difficult option than only one pie – chart so as for you to be better prepared. Let’s read the task:

Ok, these are two pie-charts, one for 1972 and one for 2002. As you probably already know by now, firstly, we underline the important information in the topic: “annual spending”, “women”, “age 25 – 30”, “1972, 2002”, “summarise”, “select”, “report”, “main features”, “make comparisons”.

Our first paragraph–the introduction–will be written by paraphrasing the topic. We have already talked about that in previous lessons, but here’s the lesson if you need a revision.

Moving on, don’t let the two pie – charts confuse you. Take it one step at a time. Let’s have a look at the first pie – chart: We read the categories that women spend money on and their percentages in 1972. We note the highest percentage which is “food” and the lowest which is computers. We just have a quick look at the rest. Now it is time to have a closer look at the second pie – chart. It seems that most money is spent on make – up while the lowest spending is on books.

Thus, in your first paragraph after your introduction you are just going to state what you notice in 1972 and then in 2002. Avoid comparisons at this point, unless you have the control of the organisation and coherence of your paragraph. If you are not sure about what you are doing, just take it one step at a time and describe the lowest and highest values of both pie charts separately.

For example, you can say that

“In 1972, spending on computers has the lowest percentage of all, only 1%, while food makes up 39% of the annual spending. In 2002, books have dramatically dropped whereas spending on computers has significantly increased by 10%. The percentage of spending on make up has almost doubled.

Again, you don’t want to talk about each and every thing. Talk about the two or three most important points you notice for both charts.

Time for comparisons!

Now, in your next paragraph you will focus on comparing the two charts together!You finished with summarising and reporting and now in this paragraph you will compare. As you can see, we don’t do everything at once. One step at a time, one paragraph at a time in order to be organised and cohesive. I know that even in you descriptions-paragraph you can’t avoid comparisons entirely, but now we are going to compare by giving more details to our reader. Again, as always, we focus on the most important information; we don’t have to compare everything.

For instance, we can talk about “food” which significantly dropped from the highest percentage of 39% to the smaller percentage of 14.

We also notice that make-up has almost doubled at 40% in 2002.

The percentage spent on clothes is stable, more or less the same in both charts.

It is noted a great increase on computer spending in 2002 in comparison to 1972.

These are some of the data you can use to compare together and form another paragraph while making comparisons between the two charts.

Even if you are given the most complicated graph there is, if you stay calm and follow this strategy of one step at a time and separating paragraphs by theme, you will do fine. In the end, you write down a 4-5 lines conclusion and your essay is ready to go!

Lots of students hate writing or are bored of it but really if you follow a certain path, it can be almost fun!

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